Israel is demonstrating how well it has internalized the origins of totalitarianism and put them at the heart of its control over millions of “non-persons” in that faraway place that is barely 10 kilometers from here – that void referred to in the legal language invented by Israel as “the region.”

Most Palestinians, in contrast, aren’t Israeli citizens, and for those who are, their citizenship is both Class D and conditional. There is always legislation in the pipeline that will further reduce their status. And the Palestinians who aren’t citizens don’t count at all, because they have no right to vote. It’s always possible to imagine and plan for their expulsion from this land, not merely their arrest.